Archives for 2011

Fear, uncertainty and doubt…you may look at successful people and think “I wish I was like them and didn’t have all this fear, uncertainty and doubt” as you look to start your new venture…here’s the thing, those people have been successful despite having the same fears, uncertainty and doubt as you…not because they have none.

For most of us looking to start a new venture it’s the first time in our professional lives that there hasn’t been someone else that we can put our faith in. Whether that be a manager, a senior leader or a CEO. Hell, even as a co-founder of Kaboodle I was still able to put my faith in my fellow co-founder who came up with the original vision.

As you go it alone, it’s time to put your faith in yourself, your idea and your abilities to make it happen…and whilst it might seem subtle, anyone who’s been through it, I’m sure, will attest to it being a huge shift…employee to founder or even co-founder to founder…and not everyone has what it takes…the question is do you?

And if you do, how do you dance with the fears, the uncertainties and doubts so they don’t control you?

One strategy as you look at getting started is to look for validation along the way. Anyone familiar with Lean Startup methodology might be thinking about minimal viable product and customer discovery…very important, sure. However, there’s the validation of:

[list class=”bullet-minus”][li]Having a co-founder as crazy as you about your idea[/li] [li]Having people willing to put in sweat time on the side of their full time jobs to help you build out a proof of concept[/li] [li]Finding some advisors interested enough in what you are doing to inject their experience[/li] [li]Finding some angel investors or VCs who might be willing to write you a check[/li][/list]

The loneliest and darkest time is when it’s just you and your idea…it’s those that work out a way to build a movement around their idea that reap  the rewards of starting a new venture…and I assure you, they are no different from you.

[div3 class=”quote” class2=”quote-l” class3=”quote-r”]Faith is to believe what we do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.[/div3]

– Saint Augustine

How true…